Main menu

Cadillac aims its flagship XTS at imports and traditional buyers

November 15, 2011

The Cadillac XTS sedan is powered by a V6 engine rated at 300 hp.

With the demise of the DTS and the STS, Cadillac has lacked a large, comfy cruise ship slotted at the top end of its lineup. That changes with the arrival of the XTS sedan, revealed on Wednesday at the Los Angeles auto show.

Looking nearly identical to the concept revealed at the 2010 Detroit auto, the XTS also debuts Cadillac's CUE technology, a connectivity feature with voice and gesture recognition.

The XTS draws power from a 3.6-liter direct-injection V6 with variable valve timing putting out 300 hp and 264 lb-ft of torque. That's paired with a six-speed automatic transmission. It will come in front- and Haldex all-wheel-drive models. The full-size sedan has room for five.

The car rolls on base 19-inch wheels, with 20s available as an upgrade. The suspension gets Magnetic Ride Control, and Brembo brakes are standard.

The front-wheel-drive car is expected to get 17 mpg in city driving and 28 mpg on the highway; the AWD model checks in at 17/27 mpg.

The XTS gets CUE, Cadillac's answer to advanced connected systems from BMW, Audi, Lincoln and others. CUE, which means Cadillac User Experience, works with a 12.3-inch reconfigurable cluster and an eight-inch touch screen. It pairs information and entertainment with more storage capability and fewer buttons, Caddy claims.

Perhaps most intriguingly, as the user's hand nears the screen, the system senses that and the icons appear. It also can be operated via swipes and other gestures, like similar to the way in which iPhones are operated. The ATS and the SRX also will get CUE in 2012.

Stylewise, the car looks like the concept from nearly two years ago, with a prominent grille and angled headlights. It's meant to have a larger, elegant appeal, rather than the brash, sometimes severe looks of the CTS.

The XTS goes into production in the spring in Ontario.

The concept had a fire-breathing, high-output hybrid configuration, though that has not made it to the final production trim.